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Holy Egyptian Republic
The Holy Egyptian Republic, simplified as Egypt and nicknamed Dubblehstan, was an Arabic soft theocracy created by Thorvald of Lym in the worldbuilding thread for ATEN. It did not technically appear in the game proper, as it joined with NedimNapoleon's Syria to form the United Arab Republic prior to launch. It is briefly referenced in the UAR's introduction in Imperium Offtopicum XIV, and while not directly compatible with the game's point of divergence, elements of its history are assumed to carry over. History (ATEN) The Egyptian Republic was based on ATEN's premise of the existence of supernatural forces that led to tangible manifestations of the Old Religion. Its early history remained largely consistent with the actual timeline, with the first major departure represented by Egypt attaining more favourable terms of vassalage and later complete independence from Assyria in the Sixth Century BC. It resisted the Babylonians in 567 BC but succumbed to the Persian invasion decades later. During this period, resistance consolidated around regional cults that paid tribute to a particular deity. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, internal strife abated somewhat and local culture and economy fluorished. Seeking to secure its economic interests in the region, Rome invaded Egypt, besting the army in 30 BC and establishing the country as a Roman province. The conquerors' rigid and impenetrable administration, combined with a general contempt for local culture, rejuvenated and radicalized the resistance, leading to open revolt and a fifty-year civil war. During this time, political control fragmented and the cults turned into strongholds for their patron gods, leading to a factionalization of the pantheon. In the cults' ensuing power struggles between Rome and each other, two factions emerged dominant, inferred to be dedicated to Anubis and Sekhmet, whose joint patronage forced a stalemate; Rome retained control of much of the coast, but in practical terms Upper Egypt was free to pursue its own affairs. Rome nonetheless sought to regain total control throughout the centuries, leading to intermittent wars that spurred the theological pact to even more direct intervention, culminating in their creation of "divine soldiers" that supplemented the Egyptians' own armies, whose size and strength was always in flux due to Roman-imposed economic isolation. This supernatural unit kept Egypt on equal terms with Rome, and the war ended in a draw or incrementally eroded Roman regional power. By the Seventh Century Roman influence had retreated to an enclave around Alexandria. Egyptian audacity led Rome to tighten control of its other frontier provinces. When Islamic armies began their outward expansion, they were heavily resisted in the northern Levant and funnelled west into Egypt. The result was a bloody seven-year war, the conquest of the country, and the gradual Arabization of the populace. However, while Islam continued west through Northern Africa, it was heavily contested in Egypt, where the Old Religion had become a very practical rallying flag for indigenous identity. In particular, Egypt's supernatural warriors provoked a debate within Islamic theology that resulted in "Kemetic Islam", which rationalized Egypt's patron god as an avatar of the One True God. While allowing for a coexistence between the Egyptian faiths, the sect was deemed heretical by mainstream Sunnis, and for the rest of the century the Caliphate attempted to destroy it. These divine soldiers did not seem to discriminate between religions, however, and fought as fervently in defence of Muslim Egypt. Unable to break the sect, the Caliph conceded to grudging tolerance, although the sect was ruthlessly suppressed abroad. The Old Religion was gradually eclipsed by its Islamic adaptation, which de-emphasized complex ritual and served to undermine the priest-based caste system of social organization. As nationalist sentiments began to take hold in the early Twentieth Century, the common ground of both brands of the faith became the backbone of burgeoning national identity, and military reforms officially incorporated the divine soldier cadre into the chain of command. Egypt's reconstitution as a republic combined the tenets of secular modernity and faith-neutral governance with the intractable "truth" of the country's dominant religion. See also * Syrian Arab Republic * United Arab Republic Category:Arabic-speaking countries and territories Category:Middle Eastern countries Category:African countries Category:Muslim-majority countries Category:Countries in ATEN